Southern Co-op members have overwhelmingly backed its proposed merger with the Co-operative Group.
A vote at a Special General Meeting held today saw 97.7% of Southern Co-op members backing the plans, which were first announced on 8 April.
While the merger now looks certain to go through, members must vote again at a second SGM on 21 May to confirm the transfer.
“This is the first step in the proposal to join forces with The Co-op Group and create a co-operative society with greater scale, resilience and impact for members, customers, colleagues and communities across the UK,” said a Southern Co-op spokesman.
“While the outcome of the first vote is encouraging, the second resolution vote is equally critical and we welcome our members’ continued support and engagement.”
In total 13,361 votes were cast, which Southern said was a strong turnout and “reinforces the value of member engagement and active participation in co-operative governance”.
The merger would create an organisation with sales of circa £11.5bn. Co-op Group operates around 2,300 stores as well as owning Co-op Wholesale, the business previously known as Nisa. Southern operates around 175 food stores.
Ahead of the vote, the board of Southern Co-op had been at pains to warn members the society would “most likely” go into administration if members voted against the merger with Co-op Group.
However a campaign group called Save Our Southern was set up in opposition to the move. SOS called for greater transparency over the financial position of Southern, and suggested the society should be looking more at alternative options to the Co-op deal, which seemed to include interest from fellow independent Co-op society OurCoop.
Last week The Grocer revealed Southern had dismissed the OurCoop approach.
OurCoop leaders had initially written to Southern Co-op and stated that “we believe there is real potential for our societies to build on our existing relationship”.
However in response, Southern CEO Ben Stimson and chair Janet Paraskeva wrote: “We have been meeting weekly for the past four months to address serious financial difficulties facing the society which came to light at the end of last year. The proposal to merge with the Co-operative Group has been made out of financial necessity.
“Over the past four months the board undertook extensive contingency planning and considered whether support of the necessary scale and liquidity (which between now and the end of June is £40m-£50m) could be realistically available elsewhere. Having done so, the board concluded that it was not.”
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